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Pro Tour Yokohama is in the past, and it was a very revealing experience indeed. I won’t go over the results and conclusions in great detail, since there are only dozens of articles that have done that already. The message that I use it to illustrate is far more simple: Time Spiral

. The new set on the block (sorry, sorry) is set to shake things up a bit, most noticeably in block format. The question of whether or not anything will appear that can take down Teferi Control is definitely worth considering, but with the diversity that has been a marked feature of standard since Time Spiral

came out I would hope that the deck builders out there rise to the challenge.

It is to these pioneers that I address this article. Whether you’re building a deck for your casual group or a more competitive environment, there are always perils to building a new deck. You could always take an existing deck and tweak it to your preferences and to allow for the changes to the format, but since that is simply building on existing structure, I’m not going to discuss that. If that is your particular interest, once again there are plenty of other articles out there that discuss those prospects. I’m dealing only with building decks from scratch today.

In building a block deck, often times the hardest part is figuring out where to get started. This is further complicated due to the variety of viable decks that are available right now. Trying to go card by card to determine what the foundation of your deck will be can be time consuming and become frustrating if inspiration doesn’t hit.

One way to focus your efforts is to consider major types of decks that you could build, and from there see what works. In pursuing a deck type rather than trying to come up with a complete decklist from scratch you will be able to easily recognize the potential strengths and shortcomings of the deck and take your development from there.

I will go over three types of decks to consider. No, these are not Aggro, Control, etc. deck types. These are more general types of decks that could go in a multitude of directions. Remember, the point of these types is to jump-start the creative process and allow personalized construction to go from there.

The main problem with building decks that strongly rely on creature mechanics is a weakness for removal, the availability of which could really hurt the development of such decks. A control player might allow the Thallid

A personal problem that sometimes comes up with me in this area is trying to make sure that the deck really feels like a personal creation. I understand that there are merits for playing the accepted best decks in a format and I don’t mean to criticize net-decking, but personally I try to put my spin on things at the very least. I became very frustrated during Mirrodin block, when you either played affinity or you lost to it. I piloted such a deck, complete with Ravagers and all, and eventually stopped playing competitively in Constructed events because I became bored.

When you play a mechanically themed deck, making an original deck can be difficult. It’s hard to run a vanishing/rescue deck without Calciderm

, for example, and decks that simply forgo the obvious choices will sacrifice the advantages that those cards bring to a deck. Again, this is not a problem for all players, but even those that do not feel the need to differentiate themselves through their deck creation recognize the value in playing strategies that the opponent does not expect.

For my last Cardshark article, I built and evolved a discard-themed deck without using staple power cards such as The Rack

. The point was to allow the deck to progress without feeling like it was already conforming to these “automatic” standards. It performed reasonably well (in an admittedly casual environment) and was an interesting deck to play. This is just one example of taking an established theme and pushing it in an unexpected direction.

Did my exclusion of the aforementioned cards hurt the deck competitively? One could say so, but again the deck played well. Assuming a decent opening hand was available, the deck could match or excel against a wide variety of opponents. There were very few times that I wished I could have access to any of the cards that I made myself leave out. If I felt compelled to enter a more competitive arena with this deck, I would strongly consider putting at least a few of those cards in the sideboard.

Overall, I would say that theme-based decks can be relatively easy to build and develop, but present challenges on both creativity and power levels. If a WB Rebel deck begins to dominate Time Spiral

are considered to have synergy, since each serves a function that helps make the other a stronger card. On the other hand, there is no synergy at all (or bad synergy, depending on your definition) between your Equipment artifacts and Cowardice

, since the presence of both on the board makes either or both much less useful.

Combo is an extreme form of synergy, when cards perform so well together as to have a unique effect. The line between where synergy actually becomes a solid combo is not clearly defined, but there are standout interactions that clearly make the cut. Orim

is most definitely a combo, which if left untouched means that the opponent will almost never be allowed to play a single spell.

There is some overlap between each of the types of deck that I’m analyzing. Combo and synergetic decks can often be theme decks, since well-established themes are inherently synergetic. I list the combo decks separately since they do not require a theme to exist, and in fact I often pick and choose different themes that work well together to create higher synergy.

There is at least one identifiable combo deck in the current block: Dragonstorm

. Unfortunately, as most of you hopefully realize, this is not a real combo. The mana you get from returning the Ignus to your hand does not provide you with enough red mana to replay the Ignus and use its ability indefinitely, despite the colorless mana discount. I am far from done searching for useful interactions, however, and we will see what develops over the next few months.

Raw Power

There are decks that forgo synergy (at least, as a general tool around which to build, anyway) in favor of simply having the best cards. As a tried-and-true casual multiplayer gamer in origin, I believe that just about every card can be good in some deck somewhere (sorry, Squire

s is just as capable of sacrificing your artifacts for Disciple damage, and it even gains evasion. The problem here is that the Ravager is better in every way. It can get much bigger without even devouring other arcbounds and it’s cheaper. These two facts separate the monster bomb card from the forgettable filler.

, and Boom/Bust are a handful of cards that many players would play based simply on their power alone. It is perfectly acceptable and often profitable to build a deck simply to take advantage of the best cards.

It may be interesting to keep this type of deck in mind as the block season progresses. While other builds focus on other aspects, decks simply stuffed with top-quality cards may take home quite a few victories. This all depends on what Future Sight

does to the format, which is a subject of great debate. The newest “best” cards may not be identifiable without some significant numbers to back them up.

I will acknowledge the possibility that we will not see any new decks of relevance during this block season, but I truly hope that this is not the case. With all of the possibilities that are out there, I’m looking forward to a diverse field that will keep pro players and “newbies” alike guessing from match to match. Thanks for reading, and go build a new deck!

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